"Lower
food prices in October mainly reflected cheaper vegetables,"
prices manager Chris Pike said. "Tomato, lettuce, capsicum,
and broccoli prices all fell, as they usually do at this
time of year."

Two of the five food subgroups contributed
to the fall in the food price index (FPI): fruit and
vegetables (down 5.5 percent) and restaurant meals and
ready-to-eat food (down 0.5 percent).

The key individual
fall in October came from seasonally lower prices for
tomatoes (down 32 percent). Prices were also lower for
lettuce (down 27 percent), chocolate biscuits (down 10
percent, influenced by more discounting than in September),
and capsicum (down 26 percent).

Prices were higher for:
soft drinks, carrots, plain biscuits (influenced by less
discounting than in September), sweets, pumpkin, and
potatoes. Carrot prices (up 29 percent) usually rise at this
time of year.

For the year to October 2012, food prices
increased 0.3 percent. This follows five consecutive annual
decreases. Four of the five food subgroups made upward
contributions to the FPI: fruit and vegetables (up 8.4
percent), restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (up 0.8
percent), meat, poultry, and fish (up 0.8 percent), and
non-alcoholic beverages (up 0.1 percent). These increases
were countered by a 2.7 percent fall in grocery food
prices.

The FPI measures the rate of price
change of food and food services purchased by households.
Statistics NZ visits shops across New Zealand to collect
prices for the FPI and check package
sizes.Published 13 November
2012

Prime Minister John Key says it is “not the government’s preferred option” to make a fresh capital injection into the troubled state-owned coal miner, Solid Energy, but dodged journalists’ questions at his weekly press conference on whether that might prove necessary... More>>

NZCU Baywide says that once it was found to have committed a breach of a former staff member’s privacy, it had attempted to resolve the matter... the censure and remedies for its actions taken almost three years ago are “severe” but accepted, and will hopefully draw a line under the matter. More>>

PayPal has ceased processing payments for Mega, the file storage and encryption firm looking to join the New Zealand stock market via a reverse listing of TRS Investments, amid claims it is not a legitimate cloud storage service. More>>

The New Zealand government's operating deficit was smaller than expected in the first six months of the financial year, as the consumption and corporate tax take rose ahead of forecast in December, having lagged estimates in previous months. More>>